I took a long walk through the exhibit hall this afternoon, the final day of the fair, to see if I’d missed anything on previous days. Boy, did I ever: with more than 800 exhibitors in attendance, it takes a concerted effort to see every stand. This afternoon, I was still stumbling upon some great publishing houses I hadn’t visited before today. One of the stands I stopped by was al-Rowad, the Syrian publishing house run by Kassem al-Tarras, who also serves as the director of the ISBN Agency in Syria. Al-Tarras is impressed with the Fair not only because he’s made translation agreements with German publishers in the last few days, but because so many visitors—families, schoolchildren, adults—are buying books. He credits the generous donations from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the Crown Prince, totaling 4 million dirhams distributed in the form of coupons to children and schools, for encouraging children to purchase books at the Fair. “It’s important to get people to read,” he points out. “The coupons encourage them to get into the habit of reading: better they spend their money on that habit than something else, like smoking.” A point well taken, from both a publishing and a medical point of view.

I’ll sign off for now—it’s been a great fair, with lots of good books and fascinating panels, on both the professional and the cultural programs.  I hope to see you all at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 2011!

–Chip Rossetti